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Athens fires recede but officials still wary
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-25 15:25

Athens fires recede but officials still wary

A fire-fighting airplane drops water over a forest fire in Anatoli village northeast of Athens August 24, 2009. [Agencies] Athens fires recede but officials still wary

Nineteen water-dropping planes and helicopters — including aircraft from Italy, France and Cyprus — unleashed some 14,000 tons of water on Monday that helped contain the biggest blaze near Athens.

The European Commission said in a statement it was the biggest coordinated emergency operation this year.

Before the blaze was contained, flames tore down a hillside toward houses near coastal Nea Makri, where volunteers with water-soaked towels wrapped around their necks beat back the flames with tree branches.

Fires also threatened the ancient fortress town of Rhamnus, home to two 2,500-year-old temples.

Officials have not said what started the fires. Hundreds of forest blazes plague Greece every summer and some are set intentionally — often by the unscrupulous land developers or animal farmers seeking to expand their grazing land.

Many have said Greece's conservative government showed it had learnt little from the wildfires of 2007 — the Mediterranean country's worst in decades — which killed 76 people and laid waste some 275,000 hectares (679,500 acres).

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"A complete overhaul is required in the way we deal with forest fires ... There is no sign the (government) is moving the right direction," said Dimitris Karavellas, director of the environmental group WWF in Greece.

He said state planners made insufficient use of volunteer groups and failed to crackdown on rogue developers who build homes illegally in burnt forest areas.

"A lot of the affected areas have been burned several times, which means these areas will not rejuvenate by themselves," Karavellas said.

Government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros said the firefighting effort was "well coordinated."

"From the first moment, (we had) the presence of personnel on a large scale," he said, also promising that all burnt forests would be replanted and protected from development.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis visited a fire-plane base to thank pilots who he said "surpassed the limits of human endurance."

"Continue your work and close your ears to those few who from a safe position for their own expediencies attempt (to criticize) everything," he said. "The entire Greek nation supports you and is grateful."

Greece's National Weather Service said strong winds are expected to ease Tuesday.

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